Pitiful end to a fantastic series.
So waiting for this game I expected the same, and was ultimately disappointed. I know that now that the community has fixed a lot of bugs that the game runs quite well, but it doesn't matter how well it runs. The community spent many long nights working on something that had rotten foundations to begin with. I'll review in segments why this game can't compare to the original titles, and why it ultimately fails in my eyes.
Combat: This was actually quite weak in the first two games actually. A change was desperately needed. However the system they introduced was broken in all of the wrong ways. The first two games had the problem of the fact that you could only really put your focus on one enemy at a time while being charged by dozens, making the games quite difficult, especially in the early game. This game has the opposite problem. Rather than being easy, you can click your way to victory with every single enemy in the game. Only ranged combat has any form of strategy to it, but that only boils down to kiting. Melee combat is incredibly repetitve but still frustrating, magic is so unbelievably overpowered that you can use your first spell, fireball, to win the game. Ranged combat has no variety.
Atmosphere: This is the greatest failing of Gothic 3. Now out of the box I find it to be better than Oblivion in this department, which it seemed to be trying to contend with quite religiously. However, compared to its roots the atmosphere is disasterous. The reason the first two games were a cult classic was because the small world you were stuck in was incredibly rich and detailed. Even small, unimportant characters had unique personalities and backstories. The world was literally alive. Gothic 2 expanded on this concept quite a bit by having parts of the world change as the game progressed in time, having the people react to the overall problems. Gothic 3 is spread far too thin to be appealing in comparison. Characters are not fleshed out and seem very generic, the towns of each region have very little to differentiate from the others, and your tasks in each major city boil down to the same things.
Plot: There wasn't one in this game. It finished the overarcing story of the series, but having the plot being player driven completely took away everything gratifying about the story of the game. While you were banishing arch demons and battling the driving force behind the conflicts of Myrtana in the first two games, you never accomplish anything quite as those feats in Gothic 3. It is nice to be free of the reigns of the chapter system, but the implementation was sloppy. The loss of the story driven experience removes a lot of the potential of the game. There is no great enemy to battle, there is no looming threat that only you can stop, there is just the way the war turned out, and what you're going to do about it. If anything, the game feels like a giant epilogue to the second game. Even your friends from the previous games remark on how your undertakings are pathetic compared to the old days.
Characters: While I covered this slightly in the atmosphere section, here I'm referring more about the major supporting characters of the series. Between Gothic 2 and 3 there was no consistency of personality. Proud, level headed, and wise old Lee ended up being some peon with a vendetta that was poorly executed if you even decided to help him. Angar, who had decided he was tired of fighting and wished to get away from his former life became a gladiator in an arena. It seemed like the writers didn't even play the previous title. These characters also unfortunately play little to no role in the game. Also, none of the original voice actors return for this installment.
Now the game isn't a total loss. As a stand-alone title it isn't terrible. The world is very large and looks amazing, and the initial cities are very fun before you start running into more or less the same quests all over the world. The musical score is also very very good. The first game only had one or two memorable tracks, while the second game didn't really have any. This game however takes the same style of music, but has an orchestral score this time. It is very well done, and most of the time the only reason I pop the game back in is because one of the songs pops in my head.
Overall, this is a poor entry to the series, and a very bad note to end on. If you are looking for the Gothic experience that some gamers will tell you about, this should be the last game you should check out, it really is the black sheep of the series, and not in a good way. Check out Risen to see how many of us expected this game to be, or check out the first two games. If you can find the Gothic Universe set you can get all three Gothic games in a bundle even for very little money.
-Wolfenbarg